4 file to run for Salem City School Board of Education; no other districts in Salem County will have school elections in April

Four candidates have filed to run for 4 open seat on the Salem City School District Board of Education.

SALEM — The deadline for school board candidates to file to run in the April 17 election passed without much excitement here in Salem County, as the Salem City School District will be the only district in the county to hold an April election.

The deadline for candidates to file was 4 p.m. Monday. With that deadline now passed, four candidates have filed to seek four open seats on the city’s board of education.

Incumbents Carol Adams, Julian LeFlore, and Christopher Colon have all filed to seek re-election for three open three-year terms on the board.

Stephanie Walsh has filed to run for an open one-year unexpired term. Walsh was appointed to the board earlier this month to fill a seat vacated by former board member Karen Roots, after Roots was elected to city council.

Under a new law signed into effect by Gov. Chris Christie last month, school boards may vote to switch the April school board elections to November, but they are not required to do so.

For the other 12 school districts in the county that made the switch, residents in those towns will no longer vote on local school budgets, unless the budgets exceed the 2-percent tax levy increase cap.

The city school district is expected to incur additional costs for the April election, as there are fixed costs for the election that had been previously split by the school districts.

Those extra costs are expected to total between $8,000 and $12,000.

In explaining the reasoning behind not making the move to November, the Salem City school board expressed concerns with aligning school board elections with politics in November, and with the fact that districts that choose to move are locked into the change for four years before they can change back.

The board took Superintendent Dr. Patrick Michel’s recommendation to wait at least a year before making the move, to see how it plays out in other districts.